Collegiate Times

h2okies_center

“Being the first home meet, I think we came out and we showed Virginia Tech who we are,” senior Sarah Ameen said. “Even though we had tough competition I think we performed as a team and we have some areas that we can work on but I think we overall had a good meet.

“(I would like to see) a little bit more team atmosphere, cheering, getting the parents involved and really coming to together as a team. ... Hopefully we can swim a little bit faster,” she said.

The H2Okies are now 1-24 all-time against UVa on the men’s side and 1-23 on the women’s side. Last year, UVa was the H2Okies’ only loss during the regular season for the men’s and women’s teams.

“We knew that in swimming it’s about time, about numbers,” Skinner said. “We knew that we were going to have a big challenge today so we really just stayed right on our training regime. We lifted weights, we have gone to four practices already this week. ... We actually worked even harder going into this week to see how our kids would respond. So I felt that all and all they went out there, they worked hard for us today.”

In diving, the H2Okies dominated the Cavaliers. The girls swept the top five spots in the 1-meter event, the top four spots in the 3-meter, and the men swept the top three spots in the 3-meter. This can be attributed in large part to the performances of junior Sarah Milton and senior Mikey McDonald. McDonald, a senior, earned honorable mention All-American honors last year.

“I think we knew Virginia was a tough opponent and we came out and swam our best, dove our best,” said McDonald. “I would say for Penn State we have 10 days now so we really are starting to get to a point in the fall season where we can start to work on some of the fine-tuning parts,” Skinner said.

The teams are looking to even their overall records and rebound after losing to two of the top programs in the ACC.

The H2Okies next home meet is on Oct. 31st against Penn State at 1 p.m.

Continue Reading:  « Previous12